Caltrans announced today that it has completed the reconstruction of the Baldwin Park Boulevard Bridge in order to accommodate new carpool lanes that are being built on the San Bernardino Freeway (Interstate 10).

The Baldwin Park Boulevard Bridge is part of the San Bernardino Freeway HOV project that is adding two miles of carpool lanes, east and west, on a portion of the I-10 freeway from the San Gabriel Valley Freeway (I-605) to Puente Avenue.

Metro programmed $6.3 million to fund the reconstruction of the bridge, a component of the $169 million HOV lane project.

Metro Director John Fasana, a city councilman from neighboring Duarte, said the reconstruction and seismic retrofit of the bridge improved the safety of the bridge, which connects the south section of Baldwin Park to the north section of the city via Baldwin Park Boulevard. The reconstruction provided greater clearance and wider sidewalks.

In a news release announcing the completion of the reconstruction, Caltrans noted the new carpool lanes under construction beneath the Baldwin Park bridge are projected to carry about 1,300 vehicles (or 3,300 persons) per hour during peak traffic times.

This stretch of I-10 is considered a key commuter and goods movement corridor linking Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire. More than 240,000 vehicles travel the two-mile section daily.

The Los Angeles County HOV system is part of a larger regional HOV system that serves the five counties of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The system currently covers over 960 lane miles, which represents over 68 percent of the HOV lane miles in the entire State of California.